Converged/Consolidated Databases: A Quick Overview

What are Converged/Consolidated Databases?

Here is an excellent blog post on this topic by Maria Colgan Master Product Manager at Oracle Product Management. Here is a quick summary of the characteristics/properties of Converged/Consolidated Databases.

• Converged/Consolidated Databases 
• Converged/Consolidated Databases cater to all types of data, workloads and development protocols.
• Eliminating data fragmentation also eliminates data contagion in Converged/Consolidated Databases enabling application logic/modules to use and reuse a shared data copy across the organization.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases enable more synergy for data and workloads making development faster.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases make it much simpler for developers to run stuff like Cloud, Autonomous/ML, extended SQL, spatial, blockchain, IoT etc. in one singular consolidated database rather than running them across distributed Single-Purpose databases.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases provide native support for all modern data types and most of the latest/prevalent development protocols.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases helps the overall ecosystem to be relatively lesser complex which results in lesser maintenance and development costs in the medium to long run.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases provide more/better integration for data and workloads.
• Oracle Database is a very successful example/manifestation of a Converged/Consolidated Databases model.

This video by Juan Loaiza & Andrew Sutherland gives a good summary on this topic.

I hope you got a quick overview of Converged/Consolidated Databases in this blog post.

Cheers.

Oracle Database 20c - A Sneak Peak into whats coming

Oracle Database 20c - A Sneak Peak into whats coming.

Here is an excellent blog post by Dominic Giles Master Product Manager at Oracle summarizing a Preview of Oracle Database 20c which was refreshed to v20.3 on the Oracle Cloud DBCS Platform. Here is a quick recap on this topic.

• Oracle Database 20c is the latest upcoming version in the multi-model family of Oracle Databases.
• Oracle Database 20c focus and push is on the Converged/Consolidated Database model. Here is a quick summary about Converged/Consolidated Databases:
• Converged/Consolidated Databases cater to all types of data, workloads and development protocols.
• Eliminating data fragmentation also eliminates data contagion in Converged/Consolidated Databases enabling application logic/modules to use and reuse a shared data copy across the organization.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases enable more synergy for data and workloads making development faster.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases make it much simpler for developers to run stuff like Cloud, Autonomous/ML, extended SQL, spatial, blockchain, IoT etc. in one singular consolidated database rather than running them across distributed Single-Purpose databases.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases helps the overall ecosystem to be relatively lesser complex which results in lesser maintenance and development costs in the medium to long run.
• Some of the New Features in Oracle Database 20c
• Blockchain Tables.
• SQL Macros.
• In-Memory Enhancements:
• Self-Managing In-Memory Column Store.
• In-Memory Hybrid Columnar Scans.
• Database In-Memory Vector Joins.
• Native JSON datatype Support.
• Machine Learning for Python and AutoML.
• Optimized Graph Models.
• Sharding Enhancements/Improvements.
• Persistent Memory Support.
• Expression based init.ora parameters.
• Automatic Zone Maps.
• A whole lot more is coming with Oracle 20c: Stay Tuned...

I hope you got a quick overview of whats coming in Oracle Database 20c which was refreshed to v20.3 on the Oracle Cloud DBCS Platform.

Cheers.

General Availability (GA): Oracle Database 20c is now available for Preview + New Features

General Availability (GA): Oracle Database 20c is now available for Preview + New Features. You can download 20c as a Oracle Cloud (Database Cloud Service Virtual Machine) here.

Here is an excellent blog post by William Hardie VP of Oracle Database Product Management summarizing a Preview of Oracle Database 20c. Here is a quick recap on this topic.

• Oracle Database 20c is the latest upcoming version in the multi-model family of Oracle Databases.
• Oracle Database 20c focus and push is on the Converged/Consolidated Database model. Here is a quick summary about Converged/Consolidated Databases.
• Some of the New Features in Oracle Database 20c
• Blockchain Tables.
• SQL Macros.
• In-Memory Enhancements:
• Self-Managing In-Memory Column Store.
• In-Memory Hybrid Columnar Scans.
• Database In-Memory Vector Joins.
• Native JSON datatype Support.
• Machine Learning for Python and AutoML.
• Optimized Graph Models.
• Sharding Enhancements/Improvements.
• Persistent Memory Support.
• Expression based init.ora parameters.
• Automatic Zone Maps.
• A whole lot more is coming with Oracle 20c: Stay Tuned...

Here is a pretty good video by Andy Mendelsohn providing an overview of some of the new & upcoming features with Oracle Database 20c:

Here is the complete list of New Features in Oracle 20c Documentation.

I hope you got a quick overview of whats coming in Oracle Database 20c which is now available in Preview Release.

Cheers.

The world's largest Raspberry Pi Cluster by Oracle

The world's largest Raspberry Pi Cluster was completed and built by Oracle. Here is an excellent blog post by Gerald Venzi Product Manager for Oracle Database.

Quick Recap on this topic:

• The world's largest Raspberry Pi Cluster by Oracle
• 5 x 2 Meter high racks
• 1 Supermicro 1U Xeon server
• 18 USB power supplies
• 22 network switches
• 49 customer 3D printed Raspberry Pi holders
• 1,060 Raspberry Pies
• Showcased at Oracle Code One 2019

Cheer.

How to upgrade to Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) 19c with ZERO DOWNTIME?

Here is a very useful blog post by Anil Nair Oracle Senior Principal Product Manager on How to upgrade to Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) 19c with ZERO DOWNTIME?

Here is a quick recap on this topic:

• Upgrade to RAC 19c requires Linux 7.
• Running ./gridSetup on OS version < Linux 7 will result in an error.
• Performing a series of Delete Node, Upgrade & Add Node Operations = Upgrade OS & Grid Infrastructure (GI) at the same time without Downtime (Pretty Cool Stuff).
• Alternative Upgrade Paths.

The entire presentation by Anil can be found here.

Cheers.

Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) 19c Upgrade Paths, Best Practices, Tips & Tricks

Today's post is a shout out to a very beneficial presentation by Anil Nair Oracle Senior Principal Product Manager on Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) 19c Upgrade Paths, Best Practices, Tips & Tricks.

Here is a brief summary of the presentation by Anil:

• Lifetime Support Policy Schedule.
• Oracle 12.2 Release Family & 19c.
• Future Projections for Upgrades.
• Oracle 19c requires Linux 7.
• How to upgrade to Linux 7 with least downtime.
• Alternative Paths to OS Upgrades.
• Latest ORAChk = ORAChk + CLUVFY + Autoupgrade.jar + Application Continuity & Security Related Checks.
• orachk -preupgrade = One Command for all Autoupgrade Checks.
• State of Grid Infrastructure Management Repository (GIMR).
• gridSetup can now be used with -dryRunForUpgrade option.
• Real Only Oracle Home (ROOH).
• Faster Patching with -SwitchHome.
• Upgrade Best Practices Summary.
• Whats New for Oracle 19c Grid Infrastructure (GI)?
• New GI Resource Modeling for PDBs (New).
• Oracle Clusterware Start Diagnostics (New).
• Auto-Diagnosis of unsuccessful startup issues (New).
• New Clusterware Monitor Thread & Processes (New).
• Private Network Interface Check (New).
• Oracle Clusterware Ciphers (New).
• Human Readable Messages in Trace Files for faster issue resolution (New).
• Whats New with Oracle Cache Fusion?
• Optimized Resource Master Placement (New).
• Zero Downtime for Planned Outages (New).
• Smart DRM (New).
• Rolling Windows to reduce reconfiguration impact (New).
• RAC Performance Automation.
• Exadata RAC Optimizations.
• Cache Fusion Optimizations on Exadata.

To summarize, upgrading to Oracle RAC 19c comes with lots of improvements, automations and optimizations to make the DBA's life easier than before. Check out Anil's presentation here.

Enjoy the new features by upgrading to Oracle RAC 19c.

Cheers.

Under the hood of Oracle RAC Scalability & High Availability - A Primer

Here is a very useful blog post by Anil Nair Oracle Senior Principal Product Manager outlining Oracle RAC Scalability & High Availability Internals.

Here is a quick recap on this topic:

• Fault Detection & Automatic Diagnosability with Oracle RAC 19c.
• Oracle Database High Availability Features Recap.
• Oracle Cluster Synchronization Services Recap.
• Oracle Clusterware CSSD Monitor & Agent Recap.
• Achieving Higher Availability with Flex ASM.
• Autonomous Database = RAC on Exadata (+ More).
• A whole lot more on Oracle RAC Scalability & High Availability.

The entire presentation by Anil can be found here.

Cheers.